Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, owners for both the hockey and basketball franchises in Toronto, have given the hockey management team the go-ahead to shred their under-performing team. Having watched their sister franchise, the Raptors, find success through a rebuilding process the Leafs have been given authorization to follow that model and do exactly the same.

For years the Raptors played it the Leafs way, constantly dealing younger assets and draft picks ...

It’s hard to think of a single person more responsible for whatever success the Vancouver Canucks franchise has attained in its nearly 45 years than Pat Quinn. So no matter how surprised you might have been by his passing, it is a time to remember and respect his many accomplishments and grand influence.

Indeed, since appearing at Pavel Bure’s jersey retirement last fall, there had to be concern for Quinn, who looked ...

]]>http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/11/25/an-ode-for-pat-quinn/feed/0Pat QuinncriticallycanuckBlue Jays sign Martin for both his on field skills and to spark a “dead-ass” clubhttp://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/11/18/blue-jays-sign-martin-for-both-his-on-field-skills-and-to-spark-a-dead-ass-club/
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/11/18/blue-jays-sign-martin-for-both-his-on-field-skills-and-to-spark-a-dead-ass-club/#commentsTue, 18 Nov 2014 20:58:36 +0000http://blogs.vancouversun.com/?p=168853By Michael Hobson

Shortly after the latest disappointing Blue Jay season ended manager John Gibbons was asked if, apart from the problems on the field, there were issues within the club. In a moment of seriousness and clarity the normally jocular Gibbons proceeded to explain that there were a few players on the roster that showed poor attitudes and needed to go; that the culture of the clubhouse was at times fractured and that the ...

]]>http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/11/18/blue-jays-sign-martin-for-both-his-on-field-skills-and-to-spark-a-dead-ass-club/feed/0Russell MartinthefanviewThe Mediocrity of this Vancouver Canucks Teamhttp://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/02/05/the-mediocrity-of-this-vancouver-canucks-team/
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/02/05/the-mediocrity-of-this-vancouver-canucks-team/#commentsThu, 06 Feb 2014 00:11:02 +0000http://blogs.vancouversun.com/?p=144848Mediocrity is entrenched in the Vancouver Canucks organization from its management to the team, and I wonder after all these years – 43 – why is it still being accepted by ownership and the fan base? The sellouts still persist even if the original season ticket holders no longer attend, which I can attest to. But in a city where it gets more expensive just to live and work (second most in the world) – ...]]>http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/02/05/the-mediocrity-of-this-vancouver-canucks-team/feed/0201312082158790981294-p5[1]nucksicemanCanucks’ Weekly Wayback – Henrik Sedin’s First NHL Gamehttp://blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/02/13/canucks-weekly-wayback-henrik-sedins-first-nhl-game/
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/02/13/canucks-weekly-wayback-henrik-sedins-first-nhl-game/#commentsWed, 13 Feb 2013 19:54:01 +0000http://blogs.vancouversun.com/?p=107744Sometime this weekend, assuming the slumbering Sedins can break out of their early season slump (or more appropriately, Alex Burrows can finally convert some of his chances), Henrik Sedin will surpass fellow Swede and former Canuck captain Markus Naslund as the team’s most effective scorer in their 42 season history.

So on that basis, this week’s wayback features Henrik’s first NHL game.

For Henrik (and brother Daniel) it all started over twelve years ago. They ...

“Yeah, I was a bully,” stated Lance Armstrong as he shifted uncomfortably in the chair. He had chosen to come clean on Oprah’s saccharine inducing television revival show hoping that apologies and sincerity would tap into the American willingness to forgive its heroes and enable him to continue with whatever athletic career he can forge going forward. Of course one can never know if the crimes committed can be erased with an ...

]]>http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/01/20/brian-burke-and-lance-armstrong-possess-the-same-fatal-flaw-of-character-obnoxious-arrogance/feed/0thefanviewWill the Canucks Receive Fair Value in a Luongo Trade?http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/01/11/will-the-canucks-receive-fair-value-in-a-luongo-trade/
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/01/11/will-the-canucks-receive-fair-value-in-a-luongo-trade/#commentsFri, 11 Jan 2013 19:42:29 +0000http://blogs.vancouversun.com/?p=102389Before the firing of the Toronto Maple Leafs former GM Brian Burke, I would have said that receiving fair value for Roberto Luongo from Burke would be difficult at best. Now that Dave Nonis has taken over the Leafs GM duties the likely hood of a deal is more realistic, since Toronto who finished 29th in GAA needs plenty of help in that department.

While it’s easy to understand yesterday’s firing of Maple Leafs’ President and GM Brian Burke purely on a results basis, it is a most surprising turn of events in the centre of the universe.

The Leafs recently came under the ownership of a huge media conglomerate, who had given Burke and his dodgy track record a thumbs up. Clearly, without a single game having been played this season, something recently has triggered ...

The press conference announcing the signing of R.A. Dickey, nearly a month after the trade with the New York Mets, had the atmosphere of a Christmas dinner where the adults watch with joy the antics of a precocious child. Dickey was loquacious, energetic, enthusiastic, agreeable, honest, charming and personable and he had the local press crew eating out of his knuckleball throwing hand but as nice as it is that he is ...

What to make of all the apologies emanating out of the offices down at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment this week? First it was Chairman of the Board Larry Tannenbaum who apologized to fans in a statement published in the National Post. Then coach Randy Carlyle had a press conference where he apologized for the poor play of the team. Then GM Brian Burke, the actual architect of this mess, apologized for ...

]]>http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/04/11/sorry-leaf-fans-the-corporate-apologists-basically-said-the-stanley-cup-is-not-accessible/feed/0thefanviewIf Brian Burke looks up he can see the Sword of Damocles hanging over his headhttp://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/03/26/if-brian-burke-looks-up-he-can-see-the-sword-of-damocles-hanging-over-his-head/
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/03/26/if-brian-burke-looks-up-he-can-see-the-sword-of-damocles-hanging-over-his-head/#commentsTue, 27 Mar 2012 03:21:24 +0000http://blogs.vancouversun.com/?p=69205By Michael Hobson

When you talk like you’re the smartest man in every room you enter then the pressure to be right increases exponentially every time you speak for when you are wrong you look like a fool. For Brian Burke the mediocrity of his team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, continues to make him look like a fool and as such his head is precariously perched on top of the chopping block.

Granted the words used by reliever Casey Janssen are standard baseball rhetoric, especially during spring training, but for the Toronto Blue Jays this is the year the team needs to stop producing mediocre results and step into a contending role. After two decades of predominantly pedestrian baseball and three years under new management the team needs to shed its second division skin and begin competing with the big ...